Don't buy anything new

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#1300379 8-May-2015 08:44

Rikkitic:

All of this has taught me a lesson. The days when products were actually tested before being shipped are long gone. The days when products were so well made that they didn’t need to be tested are also past. Quality control has become an alien concept. Along with customer service.

Never again will I buy anything new.

you are over generalising. it's like saying my great wall car is junk i won't ever buy another car.

there is a reason why some things are highly reputable and some things are sold in the $2 shop.

Batman

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#1300381 8-May-2015 08:46

note: highly regarded on the internet does not mean high quality or will work perfectly

on the other hand highly hated on the internet does not mean it's a bad product.

gone are the days when there was only one choice that cost an arm and a leg

freitasm

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#1300424 8-May-2015 09:15

Fred99: I actually doubt that the so-called "reviewer" had even seen the device, let alone used it. I suspect that I may have been beta tester - so there you are NexStar - my feedback is above.

I actyually use the products I post reviews. And no I won't post reviews with twenty charts showing how this laptop has this many lumens on the screen because who cares about this in real life. I write what I want to know: does it work? Does it come with crap? Does it "feel" fast even if the 3D benchmark everyone is drooling about tells me it's 20% slower than the crappy Chinese knock-off?

Also if I use something and it is crap or doesn't work... Then I don't bother writing about.

Dunnersfella: I've always seen the cheap media boxes, Freeview receivers, USB Android sticks / mini-PC's to be the obvious 'results may vary' category. While it's nice that there's innovation, the line 'if it's too good to be true' really does ring true for me.

Correct. And KickStarter. The number of emails I get every day asking to post about their KickStarter...

The interesting thing is

Most KickStarters are rebranded Chinese stuff you can buy on DX or
Are products that don't exist but blogs around the world push headlines giving the impressions these are available now (when they aren't) or
Are just crap

Rikkitic

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#1300430 8-May-2015 09:18

I feel I ought to set the record straight on a couple of matters. First, it is true that I have tended to go for the cheaper options in the past. There are two main reasons for this. The first one is that my choices are limited by my financial circumstances as I am a pensioner with a modest income. The second is that experience has taught me that very often (though not always!) there is no real quality difference between the expensive item and the bargain one. This can be debated, but it has been my experience. The main difference is that the expensive item may (or may not) come with better service and warranty conditions.

I buy locally when I can, but often the things I want are simply not available in New Zealand and I have to go overseas to find them. I would go to a local bricks and mortar shop if I could because that is how I prefer to do business. That option often just does not exist here.

I have come to agree with the ‘penny wise pound foolish’ line of thought and have become more selective in my purchase decisions. I am really sick and tired of crappy Chinese electronics and slapdash programming. I made the decision to buy the Pipo after fairly exhaustive research. I chose it over competing models because it seemed to have the better build quality. I chose it because the configuration was what I wanted (small package, no fan, HDMI output). There was no way to try it before buying. I had to make a decision based on the information I could find on-line.

The Hauppauge is indeed a well-established brand and I thought I could at least feel confident with that. I also chose it after researching the alternatives and it was not the cheapest by any means. So far it has only brought more headaches, though at least the customer service is pretty good. No-one seems to know why it keeps truncating my recordings though. We are still working on that one.

I am in the process of acquiring another standard computer to do in-place comparisons with the Pipo. I have already run tests against my desktop but it is in another room and it is difficult to do exact comparisons.

I guess my point is this: cheap or pricey, anything electronic seems to be a lottery. If you buy something new, and pay the price that is asked, shouldn’t it just work the way it is supposed to the first time? Even under the CGA, you still have to package the thing up and ship it back to the supplier (if you don’t happen to live in Auckland) and argue to get it fixed and be without it for the time it is away. That is what happened with my subwoofer amp, which failed after a week. That is also what happened to my new TV, though that was several years ago. The entire motherboard had to be replaced within a week of purchase and later all the electrolytic capacitors. The CGA is certainly better than nothing, but why should this situation exist in the first place? If they can’t make it right from the beginning, why bother to make it at all?

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alasta

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#1300438 8-May-2015 09:25

networkn:
alasta: Most new items that I've bought in recent years have performed extremely well and been 100% reliable including my car, whiteware, TV, camera, etc.

The exception is anything made by the computer industry who seem to have completely different standards from all other facets of engineering. They don't test stuff properly, don't seek feedback from real world users and try to pass the buck when you point out the faults in the product.

Blame consumers who want everything cheaper cheaper cheaper. You can't have it both ways.

The well performing items that I noted in my first paragraph are cheaper than they've ever been. A car, at least in inflation adjusted terms, is probably about $5k cheaper than it would have been ten years ago and the refinement, equipment levels, and quality control of most manufacturers have steadily improved over that time. Not to mention that three year warranties are gradually giving way to five year warranties.

Apple could learn a lot from the automotive industry.

Batman

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#1300440 8-May-2015 09:26

re: rikkitic

i have to agree with you. with modern electronics, we are promised the world (the ads the reviews the internet). but in reality, they don't produce magic. just accept this as a caveat for future electronic purchases. or ask GZ who always seems to have someone who knows something about something.

Rikkitic

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#1300450 8-May-2015 09:44

joker97: re: rikkitic

i have to agree with you. with modern electronics, we are promised the world (the ads the reviews the internet). but in reality, they don't produce magic. just accept this as a caveat for future electronic purchases. or ask GZ who always seems to have someone who knows something about something.

GZ is my main source of information and solace. It is what makes the rest bearable.

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MikeB4

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#1300455 8-May-2015 09:49

freitasm:
Fred99: I actually doubt that the so-called "reviewer" had even seen the device, let alone used it. I suspect that I may have been beta tester - so there you are NexStar - my feedback is above.

I actyually use the products I post reviews. And no I won't post reviews with twenty charts showing how this laptop has this many lumens on the screen because who cares about this in real life. I write what I want to know: does it work? Does it come with crap? Does it "feel" fast even if the 3D benchmark everyone is drooling about tells me it's 20% slower than the crappy Chinese knock-off?

Also if I use something and it is crap or doesn't work... Then I don't bother writing about.

Dunnersfella: I've always seen the cheap media boxes, Freeview receivers, USB Android sticks / mini-PC's to be the obvious 'results may vary' category. While it's nice that there's innovation, the line 'if it's too good to be true' really does ring true for me.

Correct. And KickStarter. The number of emails I get every day asking to post about their KickStarter...

The interesting thing is

Most KickStarters are rebranded Chinese stuff you can buy on DX or
Are products that don't exist but blogs around the world push headlines giving the impressions these are available now (when they aren't) or
Are just crap

The reviews here are not like AnandTech etc and that is a good thing. I trust the reviews here as they are real world 'as we would use them' reviews that make sense.

Batman

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#1300456 8-May-2015 09:50

I on the other hand like Anandtech, not necessarily for real world decision making, but I like to overanalyze :)

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#1300463 8-May-2015 09:57

joker97: I on the other hand like Anandtech, not necessarily for real world decision making, but I like to overanalyze :)

If you need that detail the site is very good.

robjg63

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#1300467 8-May-2015 09:58

I think the increasing issue with bad appliances is poor software.

Apparently one of the biggest issues facing auto manufacturers of new cars is now the onboard/entertainment systems - either bugs or difficult to use.
It has been noted several manufacturers have suffered lower customer satisfaction ratings and the culprit has turned out to be software related rather than the actual nuts and bolts hardware issues.

The universal access to the internet and 'agile' software development seems to mean to can just pump out continuous patches and hope you get it right eventually. Just recently I have actually been pretty amazed at some really crap software that became available for the Amazon Fire TV. The hardware is fine but the VLC media player and popcornflix app are both really poor (just check the user reviews). There has to be a reason why my android devices get a handfull of app updates every single day - quite often the same apps as well. I might add I have very few extra apps over and above the basics installed.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

JimmyH

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#1300946 8-May-2015 19:48

Firstly, I hope you are wrong about the Hauppauge, as I have the same unit ordered and hopefully arriving in about a week.

Secondly, it's horses for courses. I bought a nice brand name TV which I researched carefully for the living room, and am glad I did so. It's my main TV, will be used a bit, and it's worth trying to make sure it's decent - and paying a premium to do so. But for the spare room where the level of usage will be much lower and it won't be my main set, it was better value to buy an off-brand cheaply and I bought a Veon. The quality is lower, but it was only about 25% of the price. Same with tools, there are some basic tools used a lot (eg hammer, electric drill) and it's worth paying for decent performance and specs, which I do. For other tools that are occasional use or one off jobs (eg belt sander, sheet sander) I buy cheap - if it does the job, great, if it blows on the job up I take it back.

Incidently, I got a 1/3 sheet sander from the Warehouse about 17 years ago for $24.95. At the time, I just wanted it for one small-ish job. I have flogged that thing, including all the exterior windows of two houses, all the internal paintwork of two bathrooms, an external fence, and many other smaller jobs. It's battered, scuffed, gouged and faded - but the motor is still strong and it just keeps going and going like a tank. A relative has been through three Black and Decker mouse sanders and is now on their fourth, which have collectively seen much lighter use than my crummy Colt, in the same time. So cheap stuff isn't always unreliable and awful.

richms

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#1301009 8-May-2015 22:08

freitasm:
Correct. And KickStarter. The number of emails I get every day asking to post about their KickStarter...

The interesting thing is

Most KickStarters are rebranded Chinese stuff you can buy on DX or
Are products that don't exist but blogs around the world push headlines giving the impressions these are available now (when they aren't) or
Are just crap

And

Are taking the p..s with their freight charges. $20 shipping for a "$9" computer that also needs another $15 for a useful video output on it.

Richard rich.ms

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#1301011 8-May-2015 22:12

I just got a standalone HDMI recorder for my cousins, plug in HDMI or component (480P or better) and it records to a USB stick. With microphone. So they can then just copy the file to the desktop PC and screw around with it in premiere. Their problem at the moment is the uploading on their shoddy ADSL makes things not work.

I have tried 2 capture cards and boxes (1 of each) in the past and the software was dire. Lockups, freezes, randomly recording diagonal checkerboards because the video output of the console blanked for a moment etc. All software issues. All unsolved. And one of them seems to be abandoned now as there is nothing for 8.1 for it, just some bodgey vista/7 drivers.

Richard rich.ms

Rikkitic

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#1301017 8-May-2015 22:32

richms: I just got a standalone HDMI recorder for my cousins, plug in HDMI or component (480P or better) and it records to a USB stick. With microphone. So they can then just copy the file to the desktop PC and screw around with it in premiere. Their problem at the moment is the uploading on their shoddy ADSL makes things not work.

I have tried 2 capture cards and boxes (1 of each) in the past and the software was dire. Lockups, freezes, randomly recording diagonal checkerboards because the video output of the console blanked for a moment etc. All software issues. All unsolved. And one of them seems to be abandoned now as there is nothing for 8.1 for it, just some bodgey vista/7 drivers.

You have my sympathy but I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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